PAOerfulone said:
Nuvendil said:
I can't take any of the big 4 seriously. Durant because of what you stated and the other three because for two finals in a row now they have needed Durant to change their diapers when they crapped the bed in a critical game. Said it before, will say it again, no Durant, no 2017 ring. Cause all the same flaws that were exploited in their 2016 loss persist and outside Durant they have improved none. They just have Durant to cover for them when they screw up.
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BullShit with two capitals.
The flaw the Warriors had in 2016 was their HEALTH. They weren't 100%. If they had all their pieces in 2016, they would have closed that series and won back-to-back titles. It took Draymond Green getting suspended, Andrew Bogut (their starting center and defensive anchor) getting injured in Game 5, the same game Draymond was suspended, and sitting the rest of the series, Iguodala suffering back spasms, and Steph already being injured for the Cavs to manage the comeback and just barely win Game 7 at the last minute to pull it off. If Draymond doesn't get suspended, if Bogut or one of those guys were healthy, if just one or two of those things went the Warriors' way, they would have finished the repeat. Because when both rosters were complete and healthy, the 2016 Cavaliers were absolutely no match for the 2016 Warriors.
Curry and Thompson were just as subpar and below average in the first two games of that series as they were in Game 3, and the Warriors blew the Cavs out of the building in those first two games because while they didn't have Durant, they had a deep, deep, DEEP roster of skilled and smart veterans coming off the bench that could step up and get the job done. Their bench/supporting cast wasn't just Iguodala and Livingston + whoever decides to show up on certain nights. Leandro Barbosa, Marreese Speights, Brandon Rush, Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli, Ian Clark, and Andrew Bogut. They were a strong 11-12 guys deep. You can't compare that cast to Nick Young, Jordan Bell, Zaza Pachulia, Patrick McCaw, Kevon Looney, JaVale McGee, and David West and say they are even. There is no comparison. The former supporting cast FAR exceed the latter. I'll take that supporting cast all day, every day, over this one.
The narrative is has become so popular that Durant joined the 73 win team.
But what everyone continues to fail to realize is; this is not the same team. They had to give up every last one of those guys, minus Clark, just to get him. That leads to a total makeover of the team, and new chemistry that has to be figured out. It also created a problem with their depth that was exploited by Houston in the last series when Iguodala went down.
If there was no Durant in 2017, hard to say on who would have won that series, or if that would have been the series in the first place with how strong the Spurs and Rockets were last year. But they'd still have the same exact team that won 73 games and likely healthy, coming off back-to-back titles. Making them the automatic favorites. I can say that much.
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My point was that the Warriors outside Durant still have road game quality ranging from spottty to utter crap. They still have sections of games and entire games where they turn the ball over embarrassingly. For the 4th finals series in a row the big three have proven incapable of having a solid baseline of quality, having games where they are just garbage. They still get loose and commit stupid fouls when they are under pressure. They sacrificed some of their depth. But not all of their depth, they are still more well rounded than any team with 4 big names has any right to be. Far more so than, say, the Miami Heat.
And no, I am 95% sure the Warriors in 2017 without Durant would have lost to the Cavs. Durant cleaned up after them at multiple points, kept them in games where the Cavs would have steamrolled them. And yes, they would have had their better supporting cast. But the Cavs also made improvements. Just not enough to offset the Warriors bringing in Kevin Durant.
And I never put all that much stock in the 73 win thing. It's not as impressive as the next 3 records behind that for a ton of reasons, most notably the number of cannon fodder teams.
Edit: And don't give me that Green suspension nonsense. The game may have been closer in 5 but they shredded them. And Green was invisible in 6. And then in 7, Green had a phenomenal night and all the Warriors needed was for ANYONE to step up. None of them did, not one of them did. The Cavs won, the Warriors lost. They had the single highest odds scenario in basketball: Game 7, at home, after being up 3-1. They were outplayed, end of story.
Last edited by Nuvendil - on 08 June 2018
